Five Hundred Arhats No.154 · The Venerable Straight-Minded | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.154 The Venerable Straight-Minded

'Straight-minded' means a guileless, honest heart without flattery or deceit—the straight mind itself is the seat of awakening; the name marks one who practices with an honest heart, neither crooked nor false. The venerable looks plain and upright with an open bearing, possessing the candor of a straight mind and straight conduct, without hidden calculation, matching suchness through honesty.

Painted by Li Zongyi in the freehand Chinese ink (xieyi) tradition, the brushwork is fluent and the ink tones layered from dense to pale, capturing the arhat’s spirit in a few assured strokes. The blank paper itself breathes Zen; figure and spirit are one, blending monastic solemnity with the literati’s ease. Each of the Five Hundred Arhats bears its own name and practice, uniting faith, art and collectibility — an original, non-reproducible hand-painted work.

Size: approx. 100×50cm (4.5 square chi) | Traditional hand-painted Chinese ink Zen Buddhist figure painting | On paper